Abstract
Ferroelectric liquid crystal 8422[2F3] exhibits the de Vries Sm-A – Sm-C* phase transition. We have carried out a high resolution calorimetric study of 8422[2F3] and investigated the critical behavior associated with the transition. The result shows a significant critical heat anomaly at the transition, although it was found to be weakly first order. Detailed analyses revealed that the heat anomaly shows almost tricritical behavior in the vicinity of the transition temperature Tc ,while it exhibits a different critical behavior in the temperature range away from Tc.
